Factors Affecting Chemical Reactions

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Good morning,


I apologize for not being here! I am at a conference in Vancouver called Crosscurrents.  I have to go to school every once in a while too!


Super congrats to all of you that took the last test.  The average was higher than a C+ so I do owe you a party. Unfortunately it will have to wait until after spring break. 

Back to science!


So you remember that chemical reaction you did with hydrogen peroxide and yeast?? The one that foamed like crazy?  Well we are going to learn about why that happened today.  This section starts on page 113 of your workbooks. Open it now. Do it!


So a reaction can happen slowly or quickly. How fast this happens is called the Rate of Reaction.  A rate explains how slow or fast a change occurs.


There are some things that can change the RATE, or how fast or slow something happens.


1.Temperature.  

Just like when you are sloth like in the early, cold morning, atoms and molecules move around slowly when cold.  This means that they take more time to bump into each other and it takes longer for reactions to occur.  On the other hand, when molecules are HOT, they race around, bumping into each quickly, making reactions happen FAST!  Watch this:




Pretty cool eh!? I tried to find some glow sticks but couldn't so this will have to do.  

In short, reactions happen fast when hot, slow when cold. REMEMBER THIS!!

2. Concentration

You know when you make orange juice from the frozen containers and how delicious it is all depends on how much water you put in?  If you are like me then you put very little water in so it does not taste bland.  The amount of orange juice you put in for a set amount of water is called: CONCENTRATION.


Reactions happen faster with higher concentration (less water and more orange juice!) Check this out:




Hey, you remember doing the first part of that experiment?? Unfortunately we don't have 30% hydrogen peroxide to make the cool stuff.  We are going to order some this summer so if you want to see the demo next year I will let you know when it happens.  

So remember this: The higher the concentration, the faster the reaction. Got it? Good.

3. Surface Area
 This is a measure of how much area is exposed on an object.  Let's take a sugar for example.  A sugar cube has a much smaller surface area than the same amount of loose sugar grains.  Check out this cheezy video.




4. Catalysts

Remember adding yeast to the hydrogen peroxide to make it bubble? A bunch of you asked what the yeast was for.  Well, here is your answer. The yeast was a CATALYST.  This is a substance that speeds up the rate of a reaction.  It is not actually used up in the reaction.  Another example of a catalyst would be enzymes in our bodies.

Now for the fun stuff.  You should already be working on Workbook pages:  105-111. Now in addition, I want you to work up to Page 119.  

Workbook pages 105-119.  I am going to really focus on pages 111 and 119.

Have a great spring break and be safe!!!

Test on Tuesday

Hello folks,

We are having a test tomorrow on: Acids/bases, Salts and Organic Chemistry.  Today will be review. Study hard tonight and you will do great!!

Acids and Bases

Howdy Folks,

I hope you y'all had a great weekend!! 

Remember that awesome time we had on Friday?! Well, we are going to learn all about what is happening at the molecular level when you saw those cool colour changes.  Here is a video refresher on various items on the pH scale.




The big picture is to remember that:

• Acids produce hydrogen ion (H+)
• Bases produce hydroxide ions (OH-)
• pH is a number scale of how acidic or basic something is.
• 7 is neutral
• Lower than 7 is acidic 
• Higher than 7 is basic

• In order to measure pH of a solution we use pH indicators
• Examples include, litmus paper, phenolphthalein, bromothymol blue, indigo carmine, methyl orange, and methyl red.

• We can also use a digital pH meter to measure pH. I will demonstrate this!

Now we need to figure out how we name acids and bases. Here are a few rules.

1. Acids usually start with H (hydrogen). Example, HCl
2. Bases usually have OH (hydroxide) on the right side of the formula.

 Here are few catchy tunes!!






If you would like to review some more about acids and bases, please go the Brain Pops site here:  Brainpops

Have fun!!

Lab Day!

Good morning everyone!

It is Friday! Today we are going to have some fun and work on a lab looking at  acids and bases.  We have acids and bases all around us in our houses, school and in the store.  Today you get to find out what they are.

If you miss today, no worries. You can make the lab up by seeing me and staying after school for 30 minutes to do it.  Be sure to wear your safety glasses, be careful with glassware and the most important thing of all----clean up when you are done. This includes washing your dishes!!!

New Test Date

Reminder that the test has been moved to Thursday!

Chapter 4 Review

Good morning,


Today we begin the review for Chapter 4. This was a large and complex chapter. Don't worry though, we are going to take it one step at a time and you will be well prepared for the test.


Speaking of the test. It will be this Wednesday. That means we have 2 full days to prepare for it.


All right let's begin.


Step One: We have to go back to Atomic Theory. Yes the whole neutron, electron, proton thing. Here is Bill to explain it


All right, does that ring a bell?


Moving on to the periodic table.
Here is a cool one


Now that we are refreshed with the periodic table, we need to move on to Bohr diagrams....yes I know you all probably call them "boring" diagrams. It is actually a good way visualize the arrangement of electrons.


Let's try it out.


Now on to Ionic and Covalent Bonding


Remember Ionic ----- Usually a METAL bonding to a NON metal. Here, one element gives up the electron and the other element takes it.


Covalent---Sharing of electrons. This involves NON metals.


Now Lewis diagrams.


Remember those dots around the element?

These are the number of electrons in the OUTER or VALENCE shell. Remember that an element is happiest with a full shell, meaning 8 electrons for most elements.


Remember these? Diatomic Elements. Think of it as a "7" plus hydrogen of course.....

Next UP!!--------Naming Compounds.


First lets start with IONIC compounds.


The first part of the name is ALWAYS a METAL!  Take for example Potassium Iodide.

Potassium is a metal---and therefore it is named first.

Iodine is not a metal and therefore comes second in the naming.  You ALWAYS put an "ide" at the end of the name. So it wouldn't be Potassium Iodine but rather Potassium Iodide. Makes sense? Good. Let's now try a few.......

NaCl      MgBr2        AgI       RbF
 Notice that the first element is always a metal and the second is a non-metal. Fun stuff!!




Next up is COVALENT compounds


These involve NON metals


Remember that you name covalent compounds using prefixes such as (Bi, Tri, Di, etc...)


Lastly, we need to review chemical equations.  We will do a few on the board and using the link posted earlier.

Chemical Equations Continued

Howdy folks!

While you continue to work on your workbooks (pages 77-80), I wanted to show you a few cool videos to illustrate some processes of chemical reactions.

Liquid Solid and Gas video.


And Song


Some funny Bill Nye cooking!


A sweet song about chemical reactions


Here is another chemical reaction balancing game!

GAME